A year on Tumbling, inspired by a friend.
I’ve hardly used this blog in the last 8 months or so, mostly because I lost any drive to do so and also got stupidly busy. Taking photos has fallen off the radar also; life has taken some interesting and challenging turns in 2011 despite how I'd hoped it might turn out. Inspired by a friend I revisited it today, and found many of the drafts I'd written including the below. I re-read it and surprise surprise, I quite enjoyed what I wrote nearly a year ago. So as always with immense paranoia I press publish and hope that sending these thoughts out into the cyber wilderness will achieve something, if not at the very least, catharsis.
I've never had a blog for longer than a week before. I have many a blogspot, wordpress and blogger page on hold in cyberspace but most are more than a reserved domain with nothing actually happening.
This is mostly a letter to myself, a year into this little personal experiment and I guess a review on what I've done with GinClub compared to what I thought I'd do, or what I wanted to do.
A sometimes annoying part of being me is the fact that when something is important to me I have a stupidly good memory; for numbers, names and faces, for events, conversations and dates. So as Nov 18th approached I realised it was nearly 12 months ago I sat on my father's deck at his house in the coastal town of Tanilba Bay, sipping on a gin and tonic as the early summer sun was setting. In that moment I took a photo and decided that I may as well sign up myself for a blog. Again.
More than likely it was the easy nature of Tumblr that made the idea of this platform more appealing, especially the interaction of pictures, audio, quotes, text and video. Having used twitter for some time the re-blogging and 'like' features were the final draw cards. I'd been following a small number of Tumblr user through RSS and their experiences were only ever reported as positive. So then there was GinClub.
So here I am, a year later. A relatively good achievement considering that blogging makes me really uncomfortable (but that was also a big motivator in me creating this thing in the first place). I have many a moment with twitter discomfort but almost none with taking and publishing photos. Blogging is the worst for me because I want to write a lot always
Despite writing widely for print publications it's almost always on topics that flow clearly and easily onto the page. Blogging makes me worry I'll end up soapboxing or over-sharing about random and ridiculous things. Self consciousness overload. Yet this whole post is just that. Oh well.
So, in conclusion GinClub, 12 months later, notes to self:
I wanted primarily to write about things, which I mostly have not done. More writing lady!
Too many photos. There are other platforms for that.
Too much coffee! (unavoidable probably but still...)
Clap clap for lasting 12 months.
reading back over your own blog is quite interesting and on the whole I've done what I wanted to do which was record random things of interest as they poped up in everyday life.
You can't really forward plan a blog. Despite your best efforts things appear and don't which you may want to or not want to blog. (Does that make sense?)
Originally in this post I rambled on for a little more about what I thought I'd publish on the tumblr but letting the thoughts sit for a day I remembered why I started it in the first place and what I like most about it.
The people I follow. I signed up originally to follow others and it remains the main purpose of tumbling to me.
Mike for his continually astounding ability to find interesting and quirky coffee related information and his contageous love of New York City; Mie for her refreshing honesty, cooking adventures and observations on life (I'm jealous of your bravery), Deaton for his mostly disturbing pictures of tattooed naked ladies (where are the middle aged hairy men Deats?); James for his interestingness, Ben for his music and the many other coffee colleagues and strangers I follow purely for amusement, interest or entertainment.
I didn't write anymore on this draft. So I publish it as is. Thank you if you read it and I hope I'm willing in the future to perhaps write a few more.
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
areudirty
